Chrome’s sync feature can sync bookmarks, your browsing history, and passwords, and it even lets you access the tabs you have open across other devices. It’s exceptionally useful and once you have it set up, you tend to get used to it always working and ensuring a seamless transition between different systems.
Resume Sync
This is the most common trick to fix the sync is paused error on Google Chrome, if you are signed out of a Google service, like Gmail, Chrome pauses sync. To turn sync back on, sign in to your Google Account.
- On your computer, open Chrome.
- At the top right, click Paused and then Sign in again.
- Sign in to your Google Account.
Disconnect Google Account From Chrome
If you are using Chrome’s sync feature to stay signed in, you should try disconnecting your Google account from Chrome for a while. Adding it back after disconnecting it should fix the issue.
For that, follow these steps:
- Go to Chrome Settings.
- Click on Turn off next to your name and email address under You and Google. Doing so will log you out from Chrome and other Google sites. Your existing bookmarks, passwords, browsing history, etc., will not be deleted.
- Relaunch Chrome and go to Settings again. Click on Turn on and add your Google account details to sign in to Chrome.
Change Cookie settings in Chrome
Websites store login status and other important information in the form of cookies in your browser. Clearing cookies can cause you to get logged out of sites. As a result, the users are having to log in to all accounts again every time they reopen Chrome due to this issue.
- Open Google Chrome
- Go to
chrome://settings/cookies
from the address bar. - Scroll down and Turn Off the option Clear Cookies and site data when you quit Chrome.
- Click on Paused
- Click on Sign in again.
- Sign in with your password.
Modify Cookies settings of Google Chrome
- Under Chrome’s Settings page, go to the Privacy and Security section and click on Site Settings.
- Select and open the Cookies and other site data menu tab.
- Scroll to the Sites that can always use the cookies option and click on Add button.
- Enter the address site name in the site address field.
- Hit on the Add command button.
- Restart your browser and check if it fixes Chrome’s Sync is paused issue.
Make sure that you access this page in a normal window and not in an Incognito tab. This is because the Incognito window will overlap all the existing cookies rule, and it wouldn’t allow any site to access the stored cookies, which in turn will then end up re-creating the sync issue.
Keep Sync on When You Quit or Restart Chrome
If Chrome sync turns off every time you close the browser, you can change the following settings.
- Open the Google Chrome browser.
- Tap on the three-dot menu in the upper right corner.
- Select Settings from the following menu.
- Under Privacy and security, click Cookies and other site data.
- Turn off Clear cookies and site data when you quit Chrome.
- Google Chrome won’t clear the cache every time you quit the browser.
Reset Google Chrome
Resetting Google Chrome will surely fix this issue.
Open a Google Chrome window.
Copy-paste or type this line below in the address bar and hit Enter.
chrome://settings/resetProfileSettings
Click on “Reset settings” to reset Google Chrome on your computer.
(This will give Google Chrome a fresh start).
Restart your browser and the syncing process will work just as before.
Clear Chrome Cache
A corrupted cache can ruin your day. It’s almost always safe to clear the cache, so there’s no reason not to try it.
If there is overburdened browsing data in your Google Chrome, that may result in syncing problems on the browser.
- Open Chrome browser
- Press CTRL + SHIFT + Delete keys together from your keyboard.
- Select All time as a range.
- Now, click on Clear Data
Disable Chrome Extensions
Extensions play a vital role in the Chrome ecosystem. Using extensions, one can add more features to the basic Chrome interface and functionality. However, you may not have maintained some of them actively. They could be out of date or develop incompatibilities with the latest Chrome builds.
If you have dozens of Chrome extensions installed, it can be difficult to figure out which one of them is causing the syncing issue. Because of that, the easiest solution is to disable all extensions and then enable only the ones you need one at a time.
- Open Google Chrome, and tap on the three-dot menu at the top.
- Navigate to More tools > Extensions.
It will open the Extension menu. Tap on the Remove button and remove Chrome extensions.
Multiple work stations
If you use Chrome Sync on more than one desktop, you need to make the two changes above for each desktop. This problem may appear on any workstation where you use Chrome and Chrome Sync. So, it is best to apply it to all systems that use the same Google account for synchronization.
Update Windows 10
- Use the Windows + I shortcut key combinations to bring up the Settings page.
- Open Update and Security and check if there is any pending update or not.
This will check for pending updates and install on Windows OS. - Download pending updates, and install them right away.
- Hit on the Restart now on your PC for the update to be successfully applied.
Using Chrome beta
Using the beta version of Chrome may fix the issue for you, as it has for the user quoted below. It could be possible that Google has fixed the issue in beta builds, but hasn’t rolled it out to the stable branch.
Restart Computer
Many of us put our computers to sleep or in hibernation mode for days without properly shutting them down. Restarting a computer fixes various issues on your PC and will also update the Chrome browser. If you haven’t restarted in a long time, it would be good to begin the troubleshooting process for Chrome by restarting your device.
Conclusion
Google Chrome sync is paused error can leave you scratching your head, especially when the browser is part of your daily workflow. Use the troubleshooting steps above and fix the issue.
Simply apply these simple fixes at your end and the problem will be solved in no time at all. It doesn’t fix Chrome’s sync error: if Chrome keeps getting a sync error, just uninstall and then reinstall your browser to fix the problem.